Mike Pence: “Let me say I am deeply humbled by the gentleman's characterization of our efforts. There is not a day goes by in this…”

“Let me say I am deeply humbled by the gentleman's characterization of our efforts. There is not a day goes by in this Congress that I am not grateful to the people of Texas for sending Congressman Jeb Hensarling to Washington, DC. His work, Mr. Speaker, on the Budget Committee, his work as the leading voice of fiscal restraint in the largest caucus in the House of Representatives has been seminal to the debate that we are engaged in, both in the House and, as we have motivated it, in the Senate; and I congratulate my colleague from the heart. Mr. Speaker, I rise, along with my other colleagues today, in strong support of the Deficit Reduction Act. The numbers speak for themselves. And as I have listened to the opposition to this legislation speak, as I have listened to even the advocates of this legislation speak, we are spending a great deal of time in, specifically, distinguishing the trees from the forest. I would like to talk about the forest from the trees for a moment. The forest is $8 trillion in national debt, a national debt that has swelled by 25 percent, $2 trillion in the last few years alone, a post- World War II high of per-family share of the national debt, I believe the number, the gentleman will correct me, in excess of $24,000 in obligations for every American family. It is a second mortgage on every American family, that $8 trillion in national debt.…”